Revolution!: The Explosion of World Cinema in the Sixties

Product Details

An evocative and unique exploration of the most important era in international filmmaking In film history, the sixties are commonly known as the golden age of international cinema. The period from 1958 to 1969 saw a brilliant explosion of talent not just in Europe but throughout the world. From Sweden and Poland to India and Japan, from Brazil and Hungary to Spain and Czechoslovakia, young filmmakers seemingly sprang out of nowhere, challenging the stale conservativism of fifties cinema. With films like "Jules et Jim," "8 1/2," and" Breathless," to name but a few, they flouted taboos both sexual and political while bringing sharper, fresher, franker, more violent, and more personal visions to the screen than ever before. In "Revolution!," Peter Cowie discusses the themes, trends, and creative filmmakers of the period--including Antonioni, Bergman, Cassavetes, Fellini, Godard, Kurosawa, and Truffaut--while focusing on those whose voices still evoke the struggles and achievements of the sixties and set the creative and intellectual standard by which today's finest films are still held.

Revolution!: The Explosion of World Cinema in the Sixties

The following ISBNs are associated with this title:

ISBN - 10: 0571211356

ISBN - 13: 9780571211357

From the Publisher

An evocative and unique exploration of the most important era in international filmmaking In film history, the sixties are commonly known as the golden age of international cinema. The period from 1958 to 1969 saw a brilliant explosion of talent not just in Europe but throughout the world. From Sweden and Poland to India and Japan, from Brazil and Hungary to Spain and Czechoslovakia, young filmmakers seemingly sprang out of nowhere, challenging the stale conservativism of fifties cinema. With films like "Jules et Jim," "8 1/2," and" Breathless," to name but a few, they flouted taboos both sexual and political while bringing sharper, fresher, franker, more violent, and more personal visions to the screen than ever before. In "Revolution!," Peter Cowie discusses the themes, trends, and creative filmmakers of the period--including Antonioni, Bergman, Cassavetes, Fellini, Godard, Kurosawa, and Truffaut--while focusing on those whose voices still evoke the struggles and achievements of the sixties and set the creative and intellectual standard by which today's finest films are still held.

Editorial Reviews

"Possibly no writer has a better vantage point from which to survey the 1960s boom in European art cinema. "Revolution!" has the involving momentum . . . of a good TV documentary, shifting rapidly from country to country and innovation to innovation." --Godfrey Cheshire, "The American Scholar"